The Brookhaven leader., 1887-05-12
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Growing Evil of Immoral Lit
erature Depicted.
The Power of the Press for the Fostering
or Suppression of the EyII-The Moral
and Physical Efrect of Bad Books
and Pictures.

crusade against immoral literature, and
on recent Sabbath delivered q sermon
on the subject, taking for his text:
Many OF them, also, which used curious arts
brought their books together, and burned them
before all men; and they counted the price OF
them' and found it fifty thousand pieces Of
silver Acts, xix. 10
Paulhad been stirring up Ephesus with
some lively sermons about the sins of
that place. Among the most important
results was the fact that the citizens
brought out their bad books and in a pub
lie place made bonfire of them. see
the people coming out with their arms
full of Ephesiau literature, and tossing it
into the flames. l hear an economist
standing by and saying:
stop this waste. Here are 81, 800 worth
Of books-do you propose TO burn them
all upl If you don't want to read tbem
yourself sell them and let some body else
read them"
mo- said the people, elf these books
are not good for US they are not good for
anybody else, and we shall stand and
watch until the last leaf has turned TO
ashes. They have done us world of
harm, and they shalt never do others
harmn
Hear the flames crackle and roar.
Well, my friends, one of the wants Of
the cities of this country is a great bonfire
OF bad books and newspapers. We have
enough fuel to make blaze two hundred
feet high. Many of the publishing houses
would do well to throw into the blaze
their entire stock of goods. Bring forth
the insufferable trash and put it into the
fire, and let it be known in the presence of
God, and angels, and men, that you are
going to rid your homes of the Overtop-
ping and underlying curse of prof1igate
literature
The printing press is the mightiest
agency on earth for good and for evil.
The minister. of the Gospel, standing in
pulpit, has n responsible position; but
do notthink il is as responsible as the po-
sition of an editor or publisher. At what
distant point of time, at what far-opt
cycle of eternity, will cease the influence
of a Henry J. Raymond, or Horace
Greeley, or James Gordon Bennett, or
Watson Webb, or an Erastus Brooks, or
Thomas kinsellal Take the simple
statistic that our New York
dailics now have circulation of
about $4,000 per day. and add 10 it the
fact that three of our weekly periodicals
have an aggregate circulation of about
100000. and then cipher, il sou can, how
far up and how far down, and how far
out, reach the influences Of the American
printlng-pre
Great God What is to be the issue Of
all ths' l believe the Lord intends the
printing press to be the chief means for
the worlds rescue and evangeli2ation,
and think that the great last battle of
the world will not be fought with swords
and guns, but with types and presses--a
Purified and gospel literature trium phing
over, trampling down and crushing out
FIR ever that which is dcnraved. The
cnly way to overcome urclean literature
IS by scattering abroad that which is
healthfuL May God speed the cylinders
OF an h2nGst, intelligent, aggressive,
Christia.I printing press.
Rave to tell you this morning that the
greatest blessing that ever came to this
Nation is that of an elevated literature,
and the greatest scourge has been that OF
unclcan literature. This last has its vic
tins in all occupations and departments.
It has helped to fill insane asylums and
peniteutiaries and almshouses and dens of
shame. The bodies of this infection lie in
the hospitals and in the graves, while
their souls are being tossed over into
lost eternity, an avalanche of horror ana
despair.
The London plague was nothing to it.
That counted it's victims by thousands,
but this modern pestha already shoveled
its millions into the charnel-hOuse of the
morally dead The longest rail train that
ever ran over the Erie or Hudson tracks
was not long enough nor large enough to
carry the bcastlinCss and the putrefaction
which have boon gathered up in bad
books and newspapers of this land in the
last twenty years.
Now, it IS amid such circumstances that
put, this morning, a question of over
mastering Importance to you and your
families What books and newspapers
shallwe read! You see | group them to-
gether. A newspaper is only book in a
swifter and more pOrcable shape and the
same rules which VIII apply to book read
ing will apply to newspaper reading.
What shalt~ we read! Shall our minds be
the receptacle for everything that an
author has mind 10 write, Shall there
Re no distinction between the tree of life
and the tree of deuthl Shall we stoop
down and drink out Of the trough which
the wickedness of men has filled with
pollution and shame3 Shall we mire In
impurity and chase fantastic will-o'-tho-
wisps across the swamps, when we might
walk in tho blooming gardens of God: O
mol For the sake of our present and ever
lasting welfare we must make an intelli-
gent and Christian choice.
Standing, as we do, chin deep in ficti-
tious literature, the first question that
many of the young people are asking me
is: "Shall we read novcls!' | reply {:
There are novels that are pure, good,
Christian, elevating TO the heart and en-
nobling to the life. But | have still fur
Their to say that | believe that ninety-nine
out of the hundred novels in this day are
balefula and destructive TO the last degree.
A pure work of fiction is history and poet
nv combined. 1t is a history of things
around US, with the licenses and the as
sumed names of poetry. The world can
never pay the debt which it owes to such
fictitious writers as Hawthorne and Nc
Kenzie, and Lander and Hunt, and Arthur
and Marion Harland, and others whose
names are familiar to all. The follies of
high life were never better exposed than
by Miss EdgewOrth. The memories of the
past were never more faithfully embalm-
ed than in the writings of Walter Scott.
Coaper's novels are hc2lthfuly red
client with the breath OF the sea-
weed, and the air Of the American forest.
Charles Kingsley has smitten the NOR
biditv of tho,0vorld, and led great many
to appreciate the poetry of sound health,
strong muscles, and fresh air ThaClIery
did grand work IN cariCaturing the pre-
tenders to gentilty aud high blood.
Dickens has built his own monument in
his books, which are an everlasting plea
for the poor and the auathema of mi t.
ice.
Now, say, books like these, read at
right times, and read in right proportion